soapsfandomcom-20200214-history
Richard Bellamy
LORD RICHARD PEMBERTON BELLAMY, VISCOUNT BELLAMY OF HAVERSHAM is a character on the 1970s UK period drama, Upstairs, Downstairs. He was played by the late UK actor, David Langton. Tory who was liberal minded Richard Bellamy was a son of a country parson in Norfolk, and had a brother named Arthur, a doctor, who caused his brother a lot of misery. After a second season episode, Arthur was never spoken of or referred to again. He would attend Oxford (a novelization would refer to him going to Cambridge). After his schooling in Oxford, he would meet and marry a woman named Marjorie Helen Sybil Talbot-Carey, the oldest daughter of the Earl of Southwold and his wife, Lady Mabel. Despite their reservations about the marriage, Lady Marjorie's parents helped find him a safe seat in the House of Commons, as a member of the Conservative Party, and allowed the newlywed couple to live, rent free in 165 Eaton Place, a beautiful townhouse in the Belgravia area of London, which was owned by Lord Southwold. Despite being a member of the Conservative Party, Richard was more independent minded in his thinking, and could also be considered a mite more liberal than the rest of his Tory fellows. He and Lady Marjorie had two children, James Bellamy and Elizabeth Bellamy. James was known for his unrelenting recklessness in both love and business; and Elizabeth was known for her rebelliousness and unorthodox behavior. While Marjorie favored James, Richard favored Elizabeth. Elizabeth was as shy as her father. Eventually, Elizabeth found love in a man named Dana Wallace, and emigrated to America. While Richard was deeply in love with Marjorie, their differences were shown at times. Lady Marjorie considered herself a very devoted Tory, while Richard is more open to hear the other side of the issue, and both can be very stubborn. When Richard has a huge stake in something, he can be very adamant, and in those circumstances, he does tend to get his way. However, when she perished on the sinking of the Titanic, he mourned her loss very deeply. After a respectable period of mourning, he meets a widowed naval woman, Virginia Hamilton, and he falls deeply in love with the woman, although at first, the two clashed. Eventually they marry and have their honeymoon in Versailles. He becomes the stepfather of Virginia's two young children, Alice and William. In 1930, after James commits suicide due to him losing his money in the United States stock market crash, Richard retires from the House of Lords, where he received the name Viscount Bellamy of Haversham (Haversham being the biggest community near where he was born in Norfolk), and moves to Dorset with Virginia, William, Alice and the lady's maid, Rose Buck, where he wrote his memoirs. He apparently passes away before the beginning of the 2010 sequel of Upstairs, Downstairs. Trivia During the run of the original series, David Langton, the actor who played Richard, was living in the area of Belgravia in real life. His son, Simon, was also a director of Upstairs, Downstairs. Category:Upstairs, Downstairs characters Category:Bellamy family